The study followed 17 normal-weight women in Ohio who couldn't do a single pull-up at the start of the program. Three days a week for three months the women focused on weight-training exercises that strengthened their biceps and latissimus dorsi (aka your large upper-back muscles) and aerobic training to lower body fat. They also used an incline to practice modified pull-ups, hoping it would help them develop the muscles they needed when it came to doing the real thing.

Ultimately only four of the women were able to complete a pull-up even though all of them lowered their body fat by at least 2 percent and increased their upper-body strength by 36 percent.

"We honestly thought we could get everyone to do one," Paul Vanderburgh, a professor of exercise physiology, associate provost, and dean at the University of Dayton and an author of the study, told the New York Times.

If you read the story, don't let it discourage you-not every expert agrees with the conclusions.

Jay Cardiello, Fitness-Editor-at-Large of SHAPE, and founder of JCORE, says that the study methodology was flawed.

"You have to train the way you play. Would you expect a volleyball player to know how to play soccer? This study didn't have an optimal training plan, and all that guarantees is that you won't be able to do a pull-up at the end," he says.